From the high hills of the complete Land of Israel ideology and from the depth of the “defensible borders” strategy, the dilemma has shrunk to a simple practical question: Is Hamas in the picture or out?

Abbas never conditioned the continuation of the peace talks on an agreement with Hamas, and even now he holds that the reconciliation does not override the agreements between Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority. “This is not a Fatah or Hamas policy,” he said only last week, “this is my policy.”

If Netanyahu had any success at all in his Washington trip, it was thanks to his cementing of the no-partner strategy, which served his fraud so well, and will now serve Obama.